Mail Forwarding Services
There are lots of Mail Forwarding Services, in a variety of different states. Some exist primarily to serve businesses and give them a business address and mail forwarding in that state so they can take advantage of the business perks in that state. Others exist to serve primarily full-time RVers and their services are tailored to meet their needs.
A Mail Forwarding Services' address may or may not be able to be used for licensing and registering your vehicles Be sure to know the rules for that state if you will need this particular service.
Before you start using a Mail Forwarding Service you may also want to take steps to reduce your junk mail.
Escapees RV Club - Mail Forwarding Service - Escapees also has their own RV parks and useful information about how to choose a domicile state and things you need to know. Escapees claims that their address can be used for licensing and registration of vehicles.
American Home Base - A Florida-based Mail Forwarding Service that we personally used in the past.
Earth Class Mail - This is a high-tech, high-security Mail Forwarding Service that scans each envelope that arrives and puts it online for you to decide if you want it shredded, recycled, opened and scanned and sent to you as a PDF file, or if you want it forwarded to you. They also offer a service that will electronically deposit checks that are received in your mail. While Earth Class Mail does not specialize in serving full-time RVers, this looks like a very interesting new service. They offer physical addresses in several states. as well, as Post Office Box address in even more states
UPDATE: We have been using Earth Class Mail for about six months now and we are very happy with the service. When we are not traveling, we are close enough to their Seattle office that we can go pick up our mail if we want. When we are traveling, we can make decisions about what to have done with our mail without having to have it opened and scanned or without having it mailed to us just by viewing the scanned image of the envelope that they provide in the email that they send to notify us that we have received mail. It may be a little bit more expensive than some mail forwarding services. But the services are so much better. We pay to have both a Seattle street address and a Post Office Box. If you have a piece of mail scanned, they retain the scanned copy online, even if you have the original object shredded.
Bill Payment / Management Services
PayTrust Bill Payment Service - Paytrust’s service enables you to receive, review, pay and organize all of your bills (both electronic and paper) online in one secure and convenient location. With Paytrust all of your bills can arrive online. PayTrust provides you with an address that you give to your creditors that don't have websites or don't use electronic billing. When your bills arrive at Paytrust, they scan the bills and send you a notice by email. You can go online and pay your bills using different bank accounts. We love this service, and have used it for about 10 years. We have never had to change our address with our creditors when we move. We just change it with Paytrust. If PayTrust receives something like a new credit card, they send it to our current address. You would still need to forward your regular mail or have a mail forwarding service with this service, as they do not accept your other mail, just your bills.
WeI see no reason that you couldn't accomplish the same thing using a mail service, especially Earth Class Mail, and almost accomplish the same thing using your banks' online Bill Pay. However, PayTrust does seem to pay a lot of our payments through Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) to our creditors, rather than mailing checks. We tend to like this for protecting our identity. But the banks may be using more EFTs than they did in the past too.
FAX Services
Send2Fax - This service provides a toll-free FAX number. When someone sends a fax to a Send2Fax toll-free fax number - Send2Fax converts the fax to a PDF file and sends it to your email inbox, where you can print it out from your printer. You can also use a scanner to scan items and then send them to a fax machine through an email account as an attachment or through the Send2Fax website www.send2fax.com. From the perspective of the people sending you a fax, it is just like you have a regular fax machine. This is another great service that we have personally used for about 5 years. There are ther providers out there. You can check them out for yourselves. We are no longer current with the different pricing plans that are available.
Resources for Successfully Living the Mobile Lifestyle
